Genesis vs. Thesis - the battle of the WordPress Frameworks - A Real Life Example | WordPress 3.1 and Later | Forum

Post edited 2:50 pm – February 9, 2012 by Reece Morrel

When I started d my WordPress development career, I settled on the WordPress + Thesis combo largely because of Rick Anderson and his BYOBWebSite.com videos and other resources.  I have not been disappointed.

Since then, I have advanced through the ranks from a rank novice to a comfortable intermediate level.

While reviewing the search terms used to locate my primary web site, http://www.LadyLuckDiary.com, a combination of the search terms "casino" and "win" and "loss" and "statement" kept popping up.

So I decided to take a play from the wonderful world of spammers play book, and build a web site that used these terms in the domain nane.  Hence, I registered the domain name "CasinoWinLossStatements.com".

The sole purpose of this web site is to place on the first page of the search engines whenever anyone uses the terms "casino" and "win" and "loss" and "statement".  Once they visit the site, I will have links and/or advertisements directing the lucky Internet surfer back to my primary web sites, http://www.LadyLuckDiary.com and http://www.GamblingTaxInstitute.com.

But this is a dangerous balancing act and calculated risk.  If the search engines consider it excessive or abusive, then my web sites get black listed.  A big no-no.  Your mileage may vary.  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

As Rick has often reminded me, "CONTENT IS KING!"  Focus on the content instead of trying to "beat the system."

With those pre-mumbles out of the way, I decided to build yet another web site.  And if my grand experiment works, I want to be able to easily clone it for some other future web sites.

I tried to find some Thesis skins that met my requirements, but I kept coming up empty-handed and frustrated.

I came across some Genesis child themes that seemed like they would work.  But, I didn't know anything about Genesis – I would be venturing into uncharted byobwebsite waters.  Then, I found out that Rick was also investigating Genesis as well.

So I took the plunge.

On February 3, 2012, I bought the Genesis Framework with the "Minimum" child theme.

The time stamp on the downloaded file was 8:46 pm local time.  By 11:40 pm, I had a working prototype of the major design elements, posts and pages.

Not bad for not having read the instruction manual – I had printed it off and left it at the office.

Here is the prototype:  http://www.CasinoWinLossStatement.com  <– Note the word "Statement" is SINGULAR.

Here is my progress so far:  http://www.CasinoWinLossStatements.com  <– Note the word "Statements" is PLURAL.

I will post my thoughts, impressions, likes and dislikes in future forum posts.

Stay tuned!

Post edited 10:42 am – February 11, 2012 by Reece Morrel

Well, I like the way that Genesis does its installation.  Very similar to the method used for plugins.  Just upload, activate and go.

I have often thought that the FTP method for Thesis was a hassle.  Rick has informed me you can install Thesis in a similar way.  But, I would guess you still have to use FTP to rename the custom-sample folder and change the file permissions of the layout.css file and the cache folder.

I have found one handy plugin though – Reveal IDs.  Very nifty.

For example, when you are looking at the "All Pages" or "All Post" screen it will display the ID #  in a column.  Works a lot easier than hovering over the page/post name to see what ID # shows up in the browser link line.